After high-profile homicides, Milwaukee leaders pledge renewed focus on domestic violence

After two high-profile cases of domestic violence, concerned Milwaukee leaders came together three times this week to talk about possible solutions.

A critical question emerged: Had they diverted too many resources away from domestic violence?

Last year, Milwaukee saw a continued decline in homicides, with 97 victims. Nevertheless, nearly 20% of those cases — one in five — had a link to domestic violence, a proportion that appears to be higher than before. 

“We focused on gun violence as it pertains to drug trafficking, as it pertains to robberies, as it pertains to gangs and that type of criminal activity, but the focus was kind of lost on domestic violence," Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.

“Imagine where we could be if we had worked more closely on domestic violence in 2019.”

Reckless driving and random shootings had drawn much of the public’s attention recently, said Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who estimated about a quarter of his office is dedicated to addressing family violence.

“When other issues become a greater concern, you start diverting resources and some of it arguably gets drawn away from sensitive crimes and domestic violence investigations.”  

The meetings — one at the Milwaukee Police Department's downtown headquarters, another at City Hall and a third at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum — came after the murders of Amarah Banks and her daughters, Zaniya Ivery and Camaria Banks, and after a man was charged with dousing his girlfriend in gasoline and setting her on fire. 

“You feel: Are we doing enough? Are we putting our resources in the right places?” said Natalie Hayden, a domestic abuse survivor. 

Drawing on her personal experience, Hayden now helps others as vice chair of the city’s Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and as a co-creator of ExPOSED, a podcast about life after abuse.

"Can we do more? Yes, and it's going to require a collaborative effort," she said.

Identifying those at highest risk of homicide

For the past six years, Milwaukee County agencies have tried to figure out which domestic violence cases are most likely to escalate to murder.

Since 2014, every police department in the county has used a lethality screening: 11 questions frontline officers should ask all domestic abuse victims. 

The questions range from an abuser's prior use of weapons and access to guns, to past instances of choking or strangulation, stalking and threats to a victim's life. If a person screens in as high risk, the officer explains: "People in your situation who have this score are more likely to be murdered."

Then, the officer connects the victim with an advocate, who tells them the same thing about their risk.

Victims have said it makes a bigger impact when every person in the system shares that message, said Carmen Pitre, executive director of Sojourner Family Peace Center.

The screening collected valuable information, and law enforcement and advocates brainstormed how they could use the data to become more effective at intervening in high-risk cases.

The work took on more urgency after 18-year-old Stephanie Jones was murdered in 2017 by an ex-boyfriend who was accused of beating her twice in the month before her death. As a result of her case, the Milwaukee Police Department and the Sojourner Family Peace Center, which helps victims of domestic violence, created a "High Risk Team" with prosecutors and other partners.

The group meets weekly to review an average of 15 cases. Sojourner alone served nearly 12,000 people last year, so the group strives to examine the very highest risk.

They look for warning signs like access to guns, unemployment and violent episodes that escalate in severity and frequency. Each case gets a customized response.

“It can be the removal of a gun from a house. It might mean arrest and prosecution. ... It could be a victim connecting with an advocate when she never has before,” said Michelle Coppens-Bunker, special projects manager at Sojourner and coordinator of the county’s High Risk Team.

Of all the cases the High Risk Team has reviewed, only one has ended in death.

Sojourner's massive complex at the corner of West Walnut and North 6th streets offers a 56-bed shelter and other centralized mental health, wellness and educational services for domestic violence victims and their children. The center houses the Milwaukee Police Department's Sensitive Crimes Unit and some county prosecutors.

But even with the growing awareness of Sojourner and other service providers, people are still falling through the cracks.

The majority of the domestic violence homicides last year involved people who had no prior reported incidents or contact with formal systems, like police, courts or advocacy organizations.

Getting resources to those who need them

Hayden and her daughter, now 8, arrived on the doorstep of Sojourner Family Peace Center three years ago after she had tried to leave her abuser more than seven times.

During one of those periods, she stayed with a friend who was a homicide prosecutor and whose husband was a firefighter. Her friend told her 85% of the cases she handled were domestic violence homicides.

“It could be yours next time,” Hayden recalled her friend saying. 

Still, she went back. 

“Each time that I had come and gone, I think I was getting more strength to finally stay gone,” she said.

People stay in abusive relationships for complicated reasons: fear of subjecting their children to the disruption or losing custody of them; lack of housing or other support options; inadequate income to become independent; religious or family pressure; fear, stigma and many more. 

“You never know what form of abuse an abuser is using. It can be intimidation, it can be your child, it could be your family, it could be many things hanging over your head that will coerce you to come back,” Hayden said.

Hayden’s mission is to reach others.

“There needs to be canvassing and leaving tangible items with people to say, ‘Hey, we feel you, we hear you and this is your nearest resource hub,’ ” she said. “Even if it requires us going door-to-door.”

Sojourner printed 20,000 new brochures about family violence and trauma and has given away half of those in the past four months.

“The idea behind this is here’s what trauma looks like, here’s the impact on your kids, here’s why you’re important,” Pitre, Sojourner's executive director, said.

When people learn how domestic violence can affect their children, both the victim and perpetrator are more likely to seek help, she said.

Sojourner created a smaller card with similar information for police officers to leave at domestic violence scenes. Pitre said it’s been rolled out in all Milwaukee police districts and advocates are working to get the practice embedded in the police department’s standard operating procedure.

Morales, the chief, said he was still considering the proposal.

Preventing domestic abuse involves men, too

Terri Strodthoff, executive director of the Alma Center, a nonprofit in Milwaukee that works with men involved in the criminal justice system, said it's not enough to focus only on police actions or shelters and services for women.

Men have to be part of the conversation, she said.

“These are the little boys who have grown up witnessing and experiencing violence and abuse in their family and all around and have not had the environment to resolve that trauma, so they carry it as hurt inside of them," Strodthoff said. "And that’s not to excuse the violence or abuse that they perpetrate.” 

“If we want to change this, we have to understand where it’s coming from,” she said.

That understanding is a key part of taking a public health approach to violence and it’s why the city Health Department’s Office of Violence Prevention has funded programs like Coaching Boys Into Men, which educates young, male athletes about healthy relationships, consent and domestic and sexual violence.

“We're socialized that to be a man you have to be tough, you have to exude aggression and suppress feelings of sadness and sorrow, and that’s an entire recipe for disaster when it comes to relationships or friendships,” said Reggie Moore, the office’s director.

The office also has used grant funding to train hairstylists and barbers in the city so they have more tools when their clients are in the chair and sharing personal stories of trauma. Barbershops and salons, particularly in the African American community, have long been safe places for wide-ranging conversations, debates and advice.

Those organic dialogues are critical — and effective, Strodthoff said. 

“It’s really on men breaking the silence with each other,” she said.

Domestic violence at the root of shootings

While the killing of Banks and her two daughters brought renewed attention to deadly domestic abuse, the city has spent decades trying to better serve victims of family violence.

The Health Department runs one of the oldest commissions in the country focused on the issue, bringing together advocates, service providers and criminal justice partners. The Sojourner Family Peace Center is considered a national model for co-locating services. 

And the city has been at the forefront of a growing movement to treat childhood trauma, understanding the lasting health and social effects of a child suffering or witnessing abuse and how it can perpetuate a cycle of violence.

Still, advocates agreed, the problem seems to have grown. The city’s 414LIFE team, which responds to shooting victims in the hospital and mediates disputes in neighborhoods, noticed the trend last year.

“Oftentimes things are categorized generally as argument or fights and if you look at the source, it's a lot of interfamily and interrelationship,” said Moore, whose office houses 414LIFE.

After this week's meetings, law enforcement and advocates have decided to bring back monthly reviews of domestic violence homicides to determine what could have been done differently and what changes need to be made across the system.

“If we really dig into homicides cases, even if it’s not domestic violence, in the history of the individuals involved there are domestic violence incidents,” said Mallory O’Brien, who pioneered the homicide review process in Milwaukee.

“If we’re not addressing domestic violence cases way back when, we’re just setting ourselves up for that next incident.”

Resources

The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24-hour confidential hotline at (414) 933-2722.

The Milwaukee Women's Center also offers a hotline at (414) 671-6140.

The Asha Project, which serves African-American women in Milwaukee, provides a crisis line from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at (414) 252-0075. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at (800) 799-7233. For a list of domestic violence resources in the Milwaukee area, click here. 

Contact Ashley Luthern at ashley.luthern@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @aluthern.